Shattering Silos: Getting Security and Human Resources to Partner Together for Safety

Security professionals and human resources (HR) professionals share a common goal – fostering a safe and secure workplace – yet they often don’t know how to partner together to make it happen. In this episode, Dr. Marisa Randazzo talks with Nici McLean and Melissa Muir, two HR professionals who are passionate about bridging this divide between Security and HR and helping them to speak a common language. From quiz show questions to learning each other’s acronyms, Nici and Melissa share an array of tips and tricks for how HR and security can work better together to maximize resources, set aside egos, and share information to have a complete view of their risk landscape.

Melissa Muir is the Director of Human Resources and Organizational Development for the City of Shoreline. She is committed to building strategic partnerships between security and HR to reduce threats and strengthen the health and safety of our organizations and has been a leader in the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) for more than a decade.

Nici McLean is a Regional Director of Human Resources & Administration at GardaWorld Security Services where she oversees more than 20 managers and coordinators as well as 2200+ security guards. Her training extends to emergency management, crisis intervention, and de-escalation, and she works closely with the leadership team on strategic development and applying quality management principles.

Melissa Muir and Nici McLean join host Dr. Marisa Randazzo to discuss:

• How “curiosity instead of judgment” can lead to silo-busting conversations.
• Common obstacles experienced by security and HR professionals when attempting to collaborate and how to fix them.
• How HR can be used as a resource to approach difficult conversations that can easily be misinterpreted or seen as overly confrontational.
• Why employee engagement is directly related to incidents of workplace violence.